


Even If You Cannot Hear My Voice

by axumun



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-26
Updated: 2011-11-26
Packaged: 2017-10-26 13:52:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/283943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axumun/pseuds/axumun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's so much easier to run alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even If You Cannot Hear My Voice

**Author's Note:**

> For my hc_bingo prompt: unconciousness.

It's so much easier to run alone.

It had never occured to Zack, not even for a split second, to leave Cloud behind; to abandon him for the freedom they had both always taken for granted. A hero would never leave a man behind.

Looking back is something that's hard to do, sometimes, either because his mind's usually occupied with other things, like _keeping the both of them alive_ , or because the memories are just too painful. Every glance at the past makes his heart ache.

At the same time, it only renews his drive to _keep moving_.

Cloud tries. He tries _so hard_ to move, and to speak, but it's obvious that the simplest of tasks are impossible for him. Zack always notices when Cloud tries to raise shaky fingers and reach out to him, to make a little bit of contact. Something always twists in Zack's soul when Cloud attempts to talk, though he can barely grunt.

He finds himself constantly searching for the smallest glimmer of recognition and awareness in Cloud's foggy eyes, but he never sees it. He tells himself that it'll be there soon; that one day, Cloud will be his old self again: Cloud with a SOLDIER's heart and a boy's body, Cloud with the iron will.

Zack ruffles Cloud's hair - just like he used to do, when they weren't running all the time - but he misses the days when Cloud would laugh at such an antic, or flash an embarassed smile and try to duck. Now, his head just lolls to the side, as if Zack had just jostled the head of a dead body.

It's easier at night, somehow. The skies are clear, and they remind Zack of home.

He talks to Cloud, mostly about his life: his achievements; his childhood; all the people he's met along his travels, both friends and enemies. Zack is eternally grateful that he has someone to talk to at all, even if Cloud can't talk back in his current physical state. Zack simply figured that Cloud must still be able to think, even if he couldn't verbalize his thoughts, and without Zack's one-sided conversation, he'd probably get terribly lonely.

Zack tells Cloud about Angeal ("I already told you lots about him, though," Zack explains with a friendly smile that goes unseen. "He's the one who gave me this sword, the one who taught me all I know about being a SOLDIER."), Aerith ("At first, I thought she was an angel. If you saw her, you couldn't blame me.") and even that little Yuffie brat from Wutai ("She was so _annoying_! Someone should've been around to put her in her place!")

Though he knows he's probably just imagining it, he swears he sees the corners of Cloud's lips twitch upward ever so slightly.

He thinks about it again, finding that it's become harder and harder for him to remember these things.

"How long has it been, buddy?" Zack asks, though he gets more of an answer from the rock he's propped Cloud up against. "How long have we been running?"

*

Tonight's sunset makes Zack wish he and Cloud could have more of an opportunity to just appreciate the beauty of this place, of this _planet_. No matter how much of his life and career had been spent in the skyless city of Midgar, breathing in its polluted air and never seeing a trace of green or blue except for the streetlights, Zack is still a country boy at heart, and country boys shouldn't have to be _running_ from these wide open spaces like he and Cloud must. They should be thriving there, playing there. They should be carefree in a place as beautiful as this.

Even though he wants nothing more than to find a way to remain here, to breathe in the fresh air and marvel at the sky for as long as they live, he'll have no choice but to go back to Midgar with Cloud. Being fugitives is tiresome, and besides, Cloud needs a doctor, even though all of Midgar's doctors are linked to Shinra (just like the rest of the city), Luckily, he knows someone else who might be even more helpful than a trained professional.

They need Aerith. Aerith would know what to do.

"She's gonna _love_ you, I just know it!" Zack exclaims, a swing forming in his step as he picks up his pace. He feels his motivation rising. But then, he thinks about how uncomfortable Cloud must be just dangling over his shoulder, thinks about how weak his body must be from lack of excercise, and sighs.

"I'm sorry, Spike," he murmurs, like a secret. "I'll get you better, I promise, I'll get you up and running again even if it kills me!"

Cloud's breathing becomes a little ragged at that, but of course, Zack doesn't notice.


End file.
